Archive for March 13th, 2018

On September 7th 1978 Georgi Markov, a Bulhgarian defector and vocal opponent of the Bulgarian regime felt a pinch of what he thought was a bug bite on his thigh as he walked across the Waterloo Bridge in London England. Four days later after a fever started that day on the bridge, Georgi was dead from what would be discovered as a Ricin attack using a small pellet of refined Ricin injected into his system by an umbrella created and used by the KGB. Of course this assassination was carried out by both Bulgaria and the KGB, but it was the KGB who planned the operation and insured it worked.

This event was the first time I had been cognizant of a KGB assassination in the UK back in the day and in light of recent events, it seems what is old is new again in London and with the Putin KGB regime in Russia. The latest assassination using dangerous nerve toxin was even more dangerous and brazen in that, as we understand it today, the deployment of the Novichok agent was likely either in the form of a spray (puff) aimed at the Skripal’s or it was a dusting of objects or places in the public by the KGB (and yes, it’s the KGB, always will be in my book. Nothing has changed but the name of the org) Though it has yet to be revealed just how the KGB operatives deployed the nerve agent, it is important to note that back in the day it seems that the KGB at least took more care to not have collateral damage with innocent bystanders possibly being killed with the umbrella device as opposed to the anything goes style of the Skripal assassination. This post is about the change in aggression and sloppiness by Putin and his KGB minions and what is motivating these attacks and methods.

Putin’s Putsch

Since I am not sure how many of you are familiar of how Putin rose to power, I will just highlight the fact that he came to power as the inside KGB man that he was. When Yeltsin finally fell apart Putin made his move. Or, more to the point perhaps Putin helped Yeltsin fall apart and made his move. Granting a “pardon” of sorts to Yeltsin he took over the presidency and his regime began in earnest December 31st 1999. It is an interesting fact that Putin himself was under investigation for corruption as well, but soon after the take over the investigation was dropped. Since then, Putin has consolidated power, side stepped the Russian rules of law concerning the presidency, and carried out his desires on making Russia Great Again. Along the way Putin has amassed what is considered possibly to be the largest amount of wealth held by one person, annexed other countries territories, and of late, brazenly attacked another sovereign nations electoral system to sow chaos and potentially install a friendly entity at it’s head, or at least one that is beholden to him.

Putin has pushed the envelope and no one has stopped him. NATO cannot, the US was the bulwark against an unchecked Russia, but now that is no more. This is an important factor that will play out below but you have to understand the players and the dynamic of the game to realize just what is happening here with the assassination of Skripal and it’s political import. We are living through a time where the shift seems to be occurring where China and Russia are becoming the super powers and the US is steadily losing, if not already has lost, it’s seat at the super power table at least politically if not literally. Putin has directly affected our policy in Trumps winning the presidency and now he is empowered. This empowerment will only lead to more attacks on the US and anywhere else he deems he wants to destabilize.

Putin’s Assassinations

Let’s go back though and look at the assassinations that we know the Putin regime carried out.

Yuri Shchekochikhin, 2003: Shchekochikhin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 after a mysterious 16-day illness. It was officially declared though that he died from an allergic Lyell’s syndrome. His medical treatment and his post-mortem were held secret by state security though.

Sergei Yushenkov, 2003: Sergei Yushenkov was shot dead near his house in Moscow on 17 April 2003, just hours after finally obtaining the registrations needed for his Liberal Russia party to participate in the December 2003 parliamentary election

Paul Klebnikov 2004: On July 9, 2004, while leaving the Forbes office, Klebnikov was attacked on a Moscow street late at night by unknown assailants who fired at him from a slowly moving car. Klebnikov was shot four times and initially survived, but he died at the hospital after being transported in an ambulance that had no oxygen bottle and the hospital elevator that was taking him to the operating room broke down.

Anna Politkovskaya, 2006: Shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow

Alexander Litvinenko, 2006: On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body. This was deployed in a cup of tea by two Russian assets of the Putin regime.

Sergei Magnitsky, 2009: n 16 November, eight days before he would have had to have been released if he were not brought to trial, Magnitsky died. Prison officials at first attributed his death to a “rupture to the abdominal membrane” and later to a heart attack. It was later reported however that Magnitsky had died from being beaten and tortured by several officers of the Russian Ministry of Interior.

Natalia Estemirova, 2009: Estemirova was abducted on 15 July 2009 from her home in Grozny, Chechnya. Two witnesses reportedly saw Estemirova being pushed into a car shouting that she was being abducted. Lokshina said Estemirova was abducted as she was working on “extremely sensitive” cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Stanislav Markelov 2009: Markelov was shot to death on 19 January 2009 while leaving a news conference in Moscow less than half a mile from the Kremlin; he was 34. Anastasia Baburova, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta who tried to come to Markelov’s assistance, was also shot and killed in the attack.

Anastasia Baburova, 2009: Russian law enforcement authorities declared that Baburova was shot in the back of her head. Baburova died a few hours after the attack at a Moscow hospital

Boris Berezovsky, 2013: On 23 March 2013, Berezovsky was found dead at his home, Titness Park, at Sunninghill, near Ascot in Berkshire. His body was found by a bodyguard in a locked bathroom, with a ligature around his neck. hen Berezovsky’s death became known, there was speculation by mainstream British news media that Moscow might be somehow involved. The Thames Valley Police classified his death as “unexplained” and launched a formal investigation into the circumstances behind it. There are still some questions on this case.

Boris Nemtsov, 2015: Just before midnight (at 23:40 GMT+3) on 27 February 2015, Nemtsov was shot several times from behind as he was crossing the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow, close to the Kremlin walls and Red Square (55.7495°N 37.62421°E). He died at the scene. A convenient dump truck obscured the surveillance cameras on the bridge when the event occurred.

Sergei Viktorovich Skripal2018: On 4 March 2018, Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Moscow, were found in a catatonic state on a public bench near a shopping centre in Salisbury by a passing doctor and nurse. Paramedics took them to Salisbury District Hospital where medical staff determined that the pair had been poisoned with a nerve agent (Novichok)

This list is just the one’s we know about, those who directly opposed Putin, I am sure there are others out there without names who disappeared as well. In looking at these assassinations, many of them in country, they are pretty brutal and straight forward. However, with the operations outside the countries where Putin has influence he had to get a bit more creative. Thus we have the polonium poisoning of Litvinenko and now Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent. Notice also that both of these guys were former secret services people (KGB/FSB/GRU) and as such, their acts of defection or opposition are seen by Putin as the ultimate insult. Putin you see, does not forgive or forget those who worked for the state turning their backs on him or the state. So, since these former operatives made Putin mad, he decided to do away with them in a very public and dastardly way. Dying of nerve agent or being poisoned by polonium are both painful ways to die and certainly send a message to anyone else who might cross Putin.

Lack of Response

Post the assassination of Skripal though, I fear that Putin will only become more brazen in his assassinations outside the greater confines of Russia. I say this because post election of Trump and the chaos that has been sown with his election as well as the BREXIT by the UK, the world is fairly unstable and factional. In the case of Skripal as well as Livinenko, it seems that the UK may be somewhat hard pressed to have a response against Russia that would mean anything. In fact, given the reaction this week by Theresa May on this incident, it is clear that the UK wants to do something but is unsure exactly what they can do because of Russia’s heavy investment in England as a whole. Add to this that the US and Trump specifically, seem unable or unwilling to respond to the actions of Putin and his regime and you can see how impotent the UK may in fact be in response to an overt act of criminality on their shores by Russia. It remains to be seen just what the UK will do in response to this attack but I for one hope that they do act, even if it is just a sting to Putin’s ego if anything.

Will the UK eject the Residentura?

Will they sanction certain players?

Will they go after Putin’s money?

Time will tell…

Dynamic Changes (Trump)

Meanwhile, all of this, the ability and the gumption for Putin to carry out these attacks is directly possible because of the election and inaction of Trump and the US government. By interfering in our election and potentially getting Trump elected by the active measures campaigns of 2015-2016 Putin has destabilized our ability to react. In fact, it may even be said that he has nulled out our ability to react because he has kompromat on the president himself and thus he knows that Trump will not act substantively against him. At worst this is the case, at best it is Trump’s own inability to govern that allows for Putin to go unchecked. As we move along with the special prosecutor’s case being made, we may eventually see just what happened in the Trump campaign and whether or not there is kompromat on him and others within his inner circle. However, as the spectacle continues Putin will have free reign to wreak havoc as he see’s fit, and that includes assassinating former assets with impunity that might still threaten his regime or just piss him off.

Please do note that it is likely this is just the tip of the iceberg yet to be seen. As we move forward there may be other assets who will be assassinated like this. Recently in fact there have been rumblings that there is also a hit out on anyone involved with the Steel dossier and that includes an intimation that Steel himself is a current target of opportunity for the KGB assassins. There is furthermore allegations and insinuations that Skripal actually was an active asset and in fact had a hand in the dossier as well. If this is the case then you can also say that the motives for assassination of Skripal would be two fold; one, don’t talk and two, this is what happens if you do. Now that there seems to be little that the US is willing to do and other countries seem to be groping for answers, Putin will live in the slack space and carry out more of these until he is satisfied.

Are We Headed To A US Assassination?

So what’s next? Do we think that this assassination will be the last? Do we really believe that there won’t be an assassination to come on US territory? I for one think that if Trump is allowed to erode our abilities to respond further, there may come a time when someone here will suddenly die of some kind of poison. What would be the response if this happened? Would the Republicans finally come out of their Trumpian stupor? I have been thinking about this for a while and honestly this all kind of scares me. Will Putin feel so secure that he would pull something like this here in the United States?

Time will tell…

If you have anything to do with saying anything against Putin you best watch what you ingest, touch, breathe, well, just live in a hazmat suit.

K.

UPDATE:

I was reminded by two comments on here about these two suspicious deaths in the US

Both of these have had no autopsy records released and both seemed to maybe have had heart attacks… Maybe… In the case of Lesin he was VERY close to Putin BUT he was in trouble with the FED’s here because of his excesses financially. I figure that Lesin got the whack because he was a threat to Putin were he to have financial kompromat on him by the US.

Now, are these two assassinations? Well, the government would have to say something on that account I think for me, but, it is really convenient that at least Levin died when he did huh?